A “CRAZY” SCHEDULE – ARE YOU AT RISK?

As a health and business blogger, occasionally I come across a topic that speaks to both of my audiences. My passion is to lead people to much better health, and my commitment is to teach people to thrive as entrepreneurs. The following is about the intersection between both and it is about your life.

Here, it is my purpose to point some things out about our lives that might help you feel more sane, more productive, happier, healthier, and more in control.

Do an experiment. Notice how often your friends, co-workers, kids, parents, and others in your life answer the question, “How are you?” by telling you how crazy things are. “It has been a crazy week.” “Things are crazy at home.” “I have been insanely busy.” “My schedule is insane this week.”

Here is my take on this. So many people overschedule themselves to the point that their lives seem, well, crazy. And the crazy thing about this is that it appears to be a self-perpetuating description of someone’s life. In other words, the crazier people get regarding their schedule, the more it appears that they get locked in by it.

Here are five keys to see if you have the “crazy bug” and what to do about it.

Notice your language. How are you describing your day and week? Do the words come out of your mouth that suggest that things are out of control? Awareness is key and the first step of this process.

Regarding your work, how productive are you? What some people call “crazy busy” unfortunately can include a lot of wheel spinning, rather than actually getting any traction from your hard work to move your business or your job forward. If you are very disciplined and focused, you will get more results from your efforts, which lends itself to the possibility of having more open time, during which you can rest and recharge your batteries. The more productive you are, the more you can feel accomplished rather than crazy.

Your health is your most important asset. While you have it, you may take it for granted. If, God forbid, you lose it, you will discover how precious it is. If you are running around without purposing your time, you may end up getting nowhere. If you are too busy to make exercise, rest, and nourishment a priority on a daily basis, you need to adjust how you spend your time, get focused on your top work and life priorities, and allocate the reclaimed wasted time to nurturing your body and spirit.

Learn to embrace the unscheduled moments during the day. They are called white space, and are not booked with something to accomplish. This is time when you can take a walk around the block, make a cup of tea and sit outside with a book, do some yoga stretching in your office, or just sit and think. If you find yourself anxious to fill every moment, remind yourself that that is the “crazy addiction” talking. With practice you can enjoy those white spaces and recover from the need to fill them.

Get clear on your priorities. Your to-do list can include not only what you want to do, but why you want to do it. Why is it important to you to complete a given task? By identifying your reason or motivation for accomplishing certain things, this may help you achieve these goals more efficiently. It’s one thing to say you want to plan a vacation for your family. When you know why you want to go (spend quality family time, daughter leaving for college next year, last time to go see an aging family member) you may plan that trip in a couple of days, rather than dragging it along partially unfinished over a few weeks. The result? More peace, a sense of accomplishment, and the perception of a sane life over which you have control, rather than one where your life controls you.